Watch Joan Jett’s New Collaboration With Blondie

The last time I mentioned Joan Jett I was poking fun at her for making one of the worst Who covers ever. But all kidding aside, she deserves her due for blazing a trail for women Rockers, picking up from where Grace Slick left off in the Sixties. Joan Jett was the first woman to do Rock the way men did it, loud and brash and leather-bound on guitars, and although looking back today she seems like a caricature of a woman Rocker, you’ve got to remember that everything from the Eighties seems like a caricature nowadays.

Joan Jett is back in the news thanks to her vocal contributions to Blondie’s latest album Pollinator, which came out late in the Spring this year. The album didn’t do a whole lot for me, but old-time Blondie fans will surely appreciate yet another rebirth of the band’s classic sound. This track “Doom Or Destiny” features Jett on backing vocals, and it may be the best song on the entire album.

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A video for the song was released this week and it is hilarious, featuring Jett and Debbie Harry as some kind of bizarro TV newscasters. Not surprisingly the video takes a stridently political viewpoint that will likely engage two-thirds of the population and likely enrage the other third. Those who feel enraged ought to ignore the video, ignore the song’s lyrics, and just dig the fact that Joan Jett is still kicking it these days, and that this song really Rocks.

Today, people say Rock is dead, but Rich says bullshit to that. “We’ve got people like Jack White, Beck and Jeff Tweedy who are worthy carriers of the torch that was lit so long ago. Taking the big tent perspective, I would argue that Rock is as vital today as it’s ever been.” You can reach him at rich@rocknuts.net.